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You are not your body, you are not your feelings, you are not your mind. What then are you?

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Sorry, I've deleted this line because I though it adds unnecessary confusion.

But to try and answer:
There is body. A physical manifestation in a space-time continuum. There are feelings - chemical reactions affecting certain parts of my brain to stimulate emotions. There is mind, experience and memory - things that allow me to have a projection of myself in the current moment in time and in the future. Those I can understand easily, as well as why they are mine and no one's else. And, there is a perception of Self - an elusive thing which I sometime even forget about. I do not understand how it came to be. I just experience it, as many other people. There is just no way to tell why right here, right now, I experience mine perception of Self, and do not experience any other living being's perception of Self.

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You do not want to die, so you come up with alternate scenarios. If that makes you feel better, go for it

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That's what people say when you try to bring up this conversation. But that's not the case. Trying to calm yourself in the face of cold emptiness of nothingness have nothing to do with trying to understand the essence of self-awareness.
Please don't be annoyed with me, but let's go back just a little. Please tell me why, in your opinion, you were born in that specific point in time when you did, and why you became you, and not me, or not the next person you see if you look out the window? I promise not to drag this on and on, I've already said most of what I wanted to say. Just wanna hear your version.

When a brain forms consciousness is formed and when the brain dies that consciousness dies.

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I still haven't heard a good reason why this process can or cannot repeat itself.

But how can you say that when we haven't come even close to understanding the true nature of consciousness. Thousands of years ago we didn't understand electricity and now look at us. Let's wait couple of thousands of years before making conclusions.

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One of the two books I am currently reading is about what is concessness
Heavy going and it is not helping my study of the book with a fair few distractions at the moment

Me thinks you over think it. I would not think of any underlying universal mechanism and I doubt a different mindset would bring about further understanding

Me thinks I can say that (this is going to sound shallow) because of all the "at one with the universe" guru clap trap clogging up bookshelves never seems to lead anywhere. Hippies fade away to be rebranded as New Age to fade away and be rerebranded as Hip and Swinging to etc etc.

The attention spans are becoming shorter and I suspect in a few years the fashion of the day will be literally the fashion for one day
Nobody will be able to get Andy's 15 minutes of fame. Lucky to get 15 seconds
Look at the Universe with realistic expectations
It's mostly dead rock and other stuff. No purpose. Grand in scope. Great to look at
WE imbue the Universe with greatness but again don't over think it and anthropomorphise (love that word) a heap of dead rock and other stuff to such a high sugary level you become diabetic just thinking about it

There is no evidence to support your idea that consciousness lives on after death.

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The consciousness does not live on. I've meant something completely different when I spoke about perception of Self. Too bad I can't express it more clearly.
So yeah, I think the conversation has gone to a dead end.

The consciousness does not live on. I've meant something completely different when I spoke about perception of Self. Too bad I can't express it more clearly.
So yeah, I think the conversation has gone to a dead end.

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The consciousness does live on, a fact evident in life itself. Andrew, My best suggestion is to try meditation. I don't know how it works, but it can bring about some marvelous changes.

Sorry, I've deleted this line because I though it adds unnecessary confusion.

But to try and answer:
There is body. A physical manifestation in a space-time continuum. There are feelings - chemical reactions affecting certain parts of my brain to stimulate emotions. There is mind, experience and memory - things that allow me to have a projection of myself in the current moment in time and in the future. Those I can understand easily, as well as why they are mine and no one's else. And, there is a perception of Self - an elusive thing which I sometime even forget about. I do not understand how it came to be. I just experience it, as many other people. There is just no way to tell why right here, right now, I experience mine perception of Self, and do not experience any other living being's perception of Self.

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Because that's what "self" is - it is your "mind" or "consciousness" - which is a function of your brain. It really is that simple.

Because that's what "self" is - it is your "mind" or "consciousness" - which is a function of your brain. It really is that simple.

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An apple falls because of the force of gravity. It really is that simple! Except, gravity is not a force, and most certainly is not that simple.
And under every simple concept there is always a layer of complexity underneath. It's all about how far we decide to go to explore it.

Time is a dimension of space-time, so to move along the time axis and experience time we need conscious spectator. After we die, we don't have consciousness nor do we experience time. For us, the universe just skips ahead to it's ultimate demise (if there is one) in an instant. Then another universe is born and dead. And another one... and all this in a single instant.

But for other spectators the universe goes on as if nothing happened. Billions, Trillions of other spectators, each with unique sense of self and perception of Self, dying constantly, and new spectators are born so that the universe can continue.
Take any one of them - a completely different being (maybe it's a Green Lizard from Andromeda?), with it's own memories and experience. It also sits on a bench in it's intergalactic park and ponder "why me is me" and "why now is now". I can't say this Lizard is me, it's not. But it's sense of self, it's perception of self, may be just identical to mine, so the universe can continue to observe itself through the eyes of it's inhabitants.

Everyone thank you for your time and participation in my delirious assumptions. Been nice talking to you!

It's a great way to fall asleep. See how long you can go without a single spoken thought in your head.
It's very difficult to do, but I'm asleep about 5 seconds after accomplishing it.

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It's was a struggled at first, and sometimes still is, but with some effort it can be accomplished. I started by focusing on my body, just feeling it, feeling what was going on inside. The other night, while meditating, I focused on the sound of my dog chewing on a bone. Pretty cool.

If I am having trouble getting to sleep I design a house in my mind and calculate all the materials, the amount of concrete, breaking that down to quantities of cement, sand and gravel..the timber, cladding, dry walls, the number of nails screws and bolts even the amount of paint and having to remember each amount and a running costing seems to get my mind so tired that it signs off.
Another method is to recall the last dream I had and try and pick up where I left off.
I use that method if I am trying to have a nap whilst waiting somewhere say sitting waiting for the doctor.
Alex

And when I'm having trouble falling asleep I... pull out my tablet and start up an episode of Westworld or something... the problem though is when I wake up, I can never remember where I left off and I have to re-watch most of the episode.
And the funny thing is - when you're about to sign off and continue watching, you're sure that you're still understand what's goin on and will be able to remember it, but on the next day you completely forget everything except when you just started to watch.